New Mr. Men characters created for 45th anniversary

Adam Hargreaves, the son of the late Mr. Men creator Roger Hargreaves, has come up with a new series of characters to mark the 45th anniversary of the brand.

The new characters are Mr. Marvellous, who is good at most things he puts his hands to, Little Miss Fabulous and Little Miss Sparkle, whose “shiny presence is… guaranteed to add a little pizzazz to any situation”.

The Guardian said the new titles will be released as e-books later this month to mark the 45 years since the launch of Mr. Tickle, although there “are plans to follow up with print editions”. The titles are listed as being sold by Amazon Media on the Amazon.co.uk and Egmont, the official Mr. Men publisher in the UK, has said it will not publish the books.

A spokesperson said: "We have no publishing plans for these new characters at present. Our Mr. Men and Little Miss programme is full up until the end of 2017 and we’re focusing on 'Mr. Adventure' as a new character launch, next April."

Not everyone is happy with the news and campaign group Let Toys Be Toys pointed out that there is a mood of “general unimpressedness” with the new characters on Twitter. However, the Telegraph replied by saying “nothing is beyond the reach of the gender police”.

Hargreaves created the first six Mr. Men books in 1971 when his son Adam asked him what a tickle looked like. The first Little Miss books were released in 1981 and Adam took over series after his father’s death in 1988.

www.thebookseller.com/news/mr-men-series-goes-digital">Sanrio, the Japanese entertainment company, currently owns the rights to the characters.